Refrigerating apparatus



May 29, 1945. A. O. GROOMS REFRLGERATING APPARATUS Filed Now-1 6, 1940 3 Sheqjs-Sheet l [ATTORNEYS May 29, 1945. 5. GROOMS REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 16, 1940 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Maw

ATTORNEYS y 1945- A. o. Ro'olvrs 2,376,913.

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS s Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 29, 1945 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Albert 01 Grooms, Dayton, Ohio',as signor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application November 16, 1940, Serial-No. 366,001

8 Claims.

This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to means for cyclically controlling a refrigerating system according to evaporator temperature and box temperature.

In-ordinary refrigerating practice the evaporator is ordinarily placed Within a compartment surrounded by insulated walls. It has been customary to control the operation of the refrigerating system by evaporator temperature. This does not take into account the varying temperatures outside of the insulated compartment. I propose to start the refrigeration cycle when the evaporator temperature reaches a temperature just above freezing in order to' defrost the evaporator and to stop the refrigeration cycles when the air or the medium cooled by the evaporator reaches a predetermined low temperature. In this way defrosting is assured every cycle and also the maintenance of proper air temperatures is also assured. I have found that controls heretofore made ior such purposes do not depend solely upon such temperatures and have been difficult to adjust and must be placed within the compartment if the temperatures outside the compartment are likely to fall below the temperature which it is desired to maintain within the compartment. 1 D It is an object of my invention to provide a control for starting refrigeration in an evaporator solely according to evaporator temperature and stopping refrigeration solely according to the temperature of the medium cooled by the evaporator in which the adjustment for both temperatures is easily made.

It is another oibject of my invention to provide such a control in which all of the adjustments can be accurately made with a. minimum of difficulty.

It is still another object of provide such a control in which a toggle mechanism is provided for the control of each thermal operating means.

It is still another object of my'invention to provide a control which may be placed eith'er within or without the compartment to be cooled regardless of'relative external temperatures.

It is another object of my invention to provide a control in which one operating means is connected through snap acting means directly to the device to be controlled while a second operating means acts through a, second snap acting mechanism to operate the device and/or the first snap acting means,

Further objectsand advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, wherein a :preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of the control with the cover removed, taken along the line ll of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-4 of Fig. 1, together with a. diagrammatic illustration of an appropriate refrigerating system;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken t -t of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line along the line 5-5 of Fig. 1, but including a cover which is nor- .ing the switch just after it has closed.

my invention to Briefly, I have shown a refrigeration switch having one bellows, snap acting mechanism, and switch contacts operated in accordance with the air temperature within an insulated compartment, while a. second bellows responsive to evap-,

orator temperature acts through a separate snap acting mechanism directly upon the switch contacts, controlled by the first bellows, in order to close the switch. An electric heater is provided within the cover so as to heat the switch in order to prevent condensation therein so that the switch may be placed anywhere and the control according to the evaporator and box temperature will always be maintained. As further insurance sufiicient volatile liquid is provided in each charged system to more than fill any of the tubing which may be exposed outside the compartment 20.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Fig. 2 there is shown an insulated compartment designated diagrammatically by the dot and dash outline 20 enclosing a compartment 22 containing a medium to be cooled. Such a medium may be a liquid or more commonly it will be the air in a refrigerated storage compartment. An evaporator 24 is placed within the compartment for cooling'the air. This evaporator is supplied with liquid refrigerant by a sealed 2 motor compressor unit 26 which withdraws evaporated refrigerant from the evaporator 24 and forwards compressed refrigerant to a-condenser 28 where it is liquefied and returned to the evaporator 24 under the control of a suitable thermostatic automatic expansion valve 28 hav-,

ing a thermostat bulb mounted upon the'evaporator outlet.

In order to operate the evaporator 24 below freezing temperatures and yet keep itfree from any material amount of frost I provide a switch 32 in series with conductors 34 and 36 connecting to the motor-compressor unit. This switch is so constructed that it will not close until e evaporator reaches a temperature just above defrosting, such as 33 F. In order to control the temperature of the air within compartment 22 more closely, my switch does not open to stop operation of the system until a predetermined low air temperature such as 36 F. is attained within the compartment 22. a

This switch includes a charged system includ- I ing a thermostat bulb 36 mounted in the air'in the upper'part of the compartment 22 so that I it is subject to the temperature of the air in a evaporator preferably at the point at which the frost disappears last. This second bulb 52 is connected by capillary tubing 54 with the auxiliary operating bellows 66. This auxiliary operating bellows 66 is connected through the primary lever 58 with a sn p actingmechanism 68 connecting-to a pivoted arm 62. This pivoted arm 62 is provided with an arm I H which, through a pin 64, operates the movable contact 48 from open to closed position. While I have shown the bulbs 38 and 62' as enlarged portions at the end of the tubing 48 and 64 it should be understood that ordinarily these bulbs will merely be the end portion of the capillary tubing without any form of enlargement.- I

The'main operating bellows 42 is confined within an L-shaped bellows stop 18 provided with a washer. "for limiting the expansion of the bellows 42. This expansion is so limited by the washer 12 that the bellows 42 cannot move the primary lever 44in a counter-clockwise direction sufficiently to move'the snap acting mechanism 46 across itsdead-center position to close the contacts 48 and 68. However, when the contacts 48 and 68 are in a closed position the bellows 42 can contract to move the primary lever 44 in a. clockwise direction to operate the snap acting mechanism 46 across its dead-center .positionto "open contacts 48 and 68. r f

This operation is controlled by the compression coil spring-14 which acts upon the primary, lever 44 in order to oppose the expansion-of the bellows 42. The tension of this spring is adjusted by an adjusting screw which is provided with an adjusting knob I8, normally limited to one revolution of rotation by the pin 18 provided upon the spring supporting structure 88 in order to engage the This isjmore clearly indicated in Fig.2.

The primary lever 44' is provided :with' a sec- 'by the evaporator 24 tlon 82 of insulating material at'its 'free end provided with-a metal connector plate 84. This connector plate-84 connects to one end of each of a pair of tension-toggle springs 88 forming a part of the snap acting mechanism '46. The other end of each of the springs 86 connect to ears formed at one end of a rigid toggle member 88 having its other end riveted by the contact 48 to the adjacent end of a flexible strip I98. This strip I88 has its opposite'end riveted to, the post 82 just beyond the ears previously mentioned. This post 62 is also provided with an arm 84 for limiting the upward movement of the rigid member 88 while the downward movement of the rigid member 88 is limited by the strip I88.

In Fig. 4,..the switch is shown plainly in the open position: The bellows 42 is expanded as far as possible because of the washer I2 and the stop member 18. It is evident therefore that the air temperature within the compartment 22 cannot cause the operationof the snap acting mechanism 46 to close the contacts 48 and 68. 'Therefore this is positive insurance that the switch can only be closed by evaporator temperature acting through the auxiliary bellows 66.

This auxiliary bellows 66 is opposed by a compression type coil spring 86 which has its tension adjusted by the adjusting screw and knob 98,

limited to one revolution of normal movement bya pin and projectionv like those described for the knob I6. justedthat a temperature of 33 must be reached I in the .vicinity of the bulb 62 before the snap acting mechanism 68 can be operated. This snap acting mechanism 68 i connected to the primary lever 68 by the secondary lever I8I which has knife edges at one end held within notches provided at the adjacent end of the primary lever 68. The other end of this secondary lever IN is connected bya tensiontoggle spring I83 with the lever 62 iusted by the adjusting screw I88. The arm 62 is provided with a projecting arm III which extends over and contacts the upper end of the operating pin 64. This operating pin 64 is slidably mounted within a bushing I I8 which is fixed within the top plate 5 of the contact chamber which is enclosed by the insulating member I".

This operating pin 64 forms a lost motion con-'- clockwise direction away from its stop screw I88.

The end of the projecting arm II I uponthe lever 62 pushes the pin 64 downwardly in order to move the contact 48 down intoen'ga ment with the prolection 82 upon the knob 4 contact post 68 and to throw the snap acting toggle mechanism 46- across its dead-center position. This will cause the starting of the motorcompressor unit and thu will start. a refrigerating cycle. The differential of the snap acting mechanism 68 is made sufiiciently small so that during the refrigeration cycle, the arm 62 is returned .to its position against the lower end of the stop screw I88 prior to the time that the air tem-' 'perature within the compartment 22 reaches the point at which the main bellows 42 will operate the snapacting mechanism 46 to open' contacts 48 and 68. This refrigerating cycle will continue until the temperature in the compartment reaches Normally this knob 88 is so adwhich is pivoted upon a pin I86 to a supporting frame I81. The counter-clockwise movement of lever 62 is adthe proper temperature such as 36 F. at which it is desired that refrigeration should stop. Thus it is evident that the starting of the cycle depends solely upon evaporator temperature and the stopping of the cycle depends wholly upon air temperature. p

In Figs. 6. 7 and 8 I have shown a modIfled form of the invention by which with a small change, the control can be made to operate so that the refrigerating cycle is not started until the air within the compartment 22 reaches a predetermined high temperature, such as 39 F., and also the evaporator 24 reaches a predetermined high temperature, such as 33 F., for example. In this modification, the only changes are the shortening of the bushing III to the length shown in Fig. 6 in the bushing designated as 2 I 3 and the shortening of the pin 64 by approximately one-sixteenth of an inch. In Fig. 6 the shortened pin is designated by the reference character I64. Also, in this modification it is necessary to remove the washer 12 in order to allow'full movement of the bellows 42. In all other respects the modification shown in Figs. 6, '7 and 8 is the same as modifications shownln Figs. 1 to and-the unchanged parts bear the same reference characters.

Fig. 6 shows the switch immediately after the bellows 42 has contracted sufiiciently to cause the" 5t and its snap action mechanism 60 causing the,

movement of the arm 62, as shown in Fig.7, alone is not sufficient to move the contact 48 in engagement with the contact post 58 or to trip the snap acting mechanism 46. Also it is evident that the primary lever .44 cannot be moved far enough from its position in Fig. 6 in order to trip the toggle mechanism 46 as long as the arm 82 remains against its stop screw I" a shown in Fig. 6. However, when the bellows 42 is sufllciently expanded and the auxiliary mechanism has tripped to push the pin I64 downwardly as shown in Fig. 7, the toggle snap acting mechanism 48 will be tripped to close the contacts 48 and II as shown in Fig. 8. Thus in this type of control a certain box temperature as well as a certain evaporator temperature is required for the starting of-each-refrigeration cycle. This is an additional precaution to prevent the air within the compartment 22 from becoming too cold.

In order to prevent the bellows 42 and the bellows 56 from becoming colder than their bulbs 38 and 52, I have provided an electric heater I which is connected across the connecting terminals I12 and I14 which respectively are rivetedto the bottoms of the posts 50 and 92' and tothe bottom of the insulated contact box II1. These posts 50 and 92 extend from the terminals I12 and I14 upwardly through apertures in an insulated contact box 1.

The cover I10 encloses the entire switch mechanism and confines theposed connectingportion of the capillary tubing 40 and 54 so that all condensation will be subject to the temperature of the bulb portions 88 and $2. This insures that the operation of the switch will always be in accordance with the temperature of the bulb portions 38 and 52. Any suitable volatile liquid may be used.

While I have decribed this control as employed for controlling the motor-compressor unit in a refrigerating system having an evaporator means for cooling the air within an insulated compartment, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to this system but that this system is merely used for illustrative purposes. If desired, this control may be used to control an electrically operated valve located at the inlet or outlet of the evaporating means, and the evaporating means may be used to cool any sort of medium at any desired temperatures whenever it is desired to control the system according to both the temperature of the medium and evaporator'temperature.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein described, constitutes a preferred form,

it'is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. Refrigerating apparatus including cooling means for cooling a medium, means for circulating a refrigerating fluid through the cooling means, control means for controlling the starting and stopping of the circulation of refrigeratin fluid, operating means responsive to the temperatureof the medium and having a connection at all times with said control means, and an auxiliary means responsive to the temperature of said cooling means and having a lost motion connection with said control means.

2.'Refrigerating apparatus including cooling means for cooling a medium, means for circulating a refrigerating fluid through the cooling means, control means for controlling the starting and stopping of the circulation of refrigerating fluid, an operating means responsive to the temperature of said medium, snap acting m'eans connecting said operating means and said control means, an auxiliary means responsive tothe temperature of said cooling means, and a lost motion connection between said auxiliary means and said control means.

3. Refrigerating apparatus including cooling means for cooling a medium, means for circulating a refrigerating fluid through the cooling means, control means for controlling the starting and stopping of the circulation of refrigerating fluid, an operating means responsive to the temperature of said medium, snap acting means connecting said operating means and said control means, an auxiliary meansresponsive to the temperature of said cooling means, a second snap acting means connected to said auxiliary means, and a lost motion connection between said second snap actingmeans and said control means for I causing the second snap-acting means to operate said control means.

4. Refrigerating apparatus including cooling means for cooling a medium, means for circulating a refrigerating fluid through the.cooling means, control means for controlling the starting and stopping of the circulation of refrigerating fluid, an operating means responsive to the te'mperature of said medium, 'snap acting means connecting at all times said operating means-and said control means, an auxiliary means responsive to the temperature of said cooling means for operat: ing said control means, and means for preventing at all times the movement of the control means inone direction by the operating means.

5. Refrigerating apparatus including cooling means for cooling a medium, means for circulating a refrigerating fluid through the cooling means. control means for controlling the startin and topping of the circulation of refrigerating fluid, an operating means responsive to the temperature of said medium, snap acting means connecting at all times said operating means and said control means, an auxiliary means responsive to the temperature of said cooling means for operating said control means, and means for preventing at all times the movement of the control xtubular means extending from said fluid motor into said compartment, said control means being compartment.

provided with heating means sumcient to prevent condensation within said fluid motor, said charged system being charged with vsumcient volatile liquid to more than fill the portion of said tubular means exposed outside said insulated 7. A control including a first operating means,

" a device to be operated, snap acting means operatively connecting said operating means and said device. a second operating means, a second snap acting means operatively connected to said second operating means, and means operatively connected to and operated by said second snap acting means for moving said device.

8. A' control including a first operating means,

a a device to be operated, snap acting means oper-' atlvely connecting said operating means and said device, a second operating means, a second snap acting means operatively connected to said sec- 0nd operating means, means operatively connected to and operated by said second snap acting means for moving said device, spring means for controlling said first operating means, spring means for controlling the second operating means, and means for independently adjusting said spring means.

ALBERT O. GROOMS. 

